Mysterious skeleton is human, not alien
After sequencing Ata’s genome, researchers found mutations in seven genes that separately or in combinations contribute to various bone deformities, facial malformations or skeletal dysplasia. Image via Emery Smith/Stanford.
By Hanae Armitage/Stanford University
A bizarre, six-inch (15 cm) skeleton, discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in Chile’s Atacama Desert, was once rumored to have extraterrestrial origins. But a new analysis, published March 22, 2018, in Genome Research, stamps out any remaining questions about the specimen’s home planet — it’s without a doubt an Earthly human.
After five years of genomic analysis, Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, and Atul Butte, director of the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at the University of California-San Francisco, have pinpointed the mutations responsible for the anomalous specimen. The researchers found mutations in several genes known to govern bone development. Some of these molecular oddities have never been described before. Butte said:
To me, it seems that when doctors perform analyses for patients and their families, we’re often searching for one cause — one super-rare or unusual mutation that can explain the child’s ailment. But in this case, we’re pretty confident that multiple things went wrong.
It’s an indication, he said, that looking for a single mutation, or even mutations that are already known to cause a particular disease, can discourage researchers from looking for other potential genetic causes and, in turn, potential treatments for patients.
The 6-inch skeleton, nicknamed Ata, was discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Image via Emery Smith/Stanford.
A human? A primate? An alien?
The skeleton, nicknamed Ata, was discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in the Atacama Desert of Chile. After trading hands and eventually finding a permanent home in Spain, the mummified specimen started to garner public attention. Standing just six inches (15 cm) tall — about the length of a dollar bill — with an angular, elongated skull and sunken, slanted eye sockets, the internet began to bubble with other-worldly hullabaloo and talk of ET. Nolan said:
I had heard about this specimen through a friend of mine, and I managed to get a picture of it. You can’t look at this specimen and not think it’s interesting; it’s quite dramatic. So I told my friend, “Look, whatever it is, if it’s got DNA, I can do the analysis.”
With the help of Ralph Lachman, clinical professor of radiology at Stanford and an expert in a type of pediatric bone disease, Nolan set the record straight. Their analysis pointed to a decisive conclusion: This was the skeleton of a human female, likely a fetus, that had suffered severe genetic mutations. In addition, Nolan saw that Ata, though most likely a fetus, had the bone composition of a six-year-old, an indication that she had a rare, bone-aging disorder.
To understand the genetic underpinnings of Ata’s physicality, Nolan turned to Butte for help in genomic evaluation. He accepted the challenge, running a work-up so comprehensive it nearly rose to the level of patient care. Butte noted that some people might wonder about the point of such in-depth analyses. He said:
We thought this would be an interesting exercise in applying the tools that we have today to really see what we could find. The phenotype, the symptoms and size of this girl were extremely unusual, and analyzing these kinds of really puzzling, old samples teaches us better how to analyze the DNA of kids today under current conditions.
New insights through an old skeleton
To understand the genetic drivers at play, Butte and Nolan extracted a small DNA sample from Ata’s ribs and sequenced the entire genome. The skeleton is approximately 40 years old, so its DNA is modern and still relatively intact. Moreover, data collected from whole-genome sequencing showed that Ata’s molecular composition aligned with that of a human genome. Nolan noted that 8 percent of the DNA was unmatchable with human DNA, but that was due to a degraded sample, not extraterrestrial biology. (Later, a more sophisticated analysis was able to match up to 98 percent of the DNA, according to Nolan.)
The genomic results confirmed Ata’s Chilean descent and turned up a slew of mutations in seven genes that separately or in combinations contribute to various bone deformities, facial malformations or skeletal dysplasia, more commonly known as dwarfism. Some of these mutations, though found in genes already known to cause disease, had never before been associated with bone growth or developmental disorders.
Knowing these new mutational variants could be useful, Nolan said, because they add to the repository of known mutations to look for in humans with these kinds of bone or physical disorders.
For me, what really came of this study was the idea that we shouldn’t stop investigating when we find one gene that might explain a symptom. It could be multiple things going wrong, and it’s worth getting a full explanation, especially as we head closer and closer to gene therapy. We could presumably one day fix some of these disorders, and we’re going to want to make sure that if there’s one mutation, we know that — but if there’s more than one, we know that too.
Bottom line: According to a new analysis, a bizarre, six-inch (15 cm) skeleton, once rumored to have extraterrestrial origins, is a human female.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2GluXbK
After sequencing Ata’s genome, researchers found mutations in seven genes that separately or in combinations contribute to various bone deformities, facial malformations or skeletal dysplasia. Image via Emery Smith/Stanford.
By Hanae Armitage/Stanford University
A bizarre, six-inch (15 cm) skeleton, discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in Chile’s Atacama Desert, was once rumored to have extraterrestrial origins. But a new analysis, published March 22, 2018, in Genome Research, stamps out any remaining questions about the specimen’s home planet — it’s without a doubt an Earthly human.
After five years of genomic analysis, Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, and Atul Butte, director of the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at the University of California-San Francisco, have pinpointed the mutations responsible for the anomalous specimen. The researchers found mutations in several genes known to govern bone development. Some of these molecular oddities have never been described before. Butte said:
To me, it seems that when doctors perform analyses for patients and their families, we’re often searching for one cause — one super-rare or unusual mutation that can explain the child’s ailment. But in this case, we’re pretty confident that multiple things went wrong.
It’s an indication, he said, that looking for a single mutation, or even mutations that are already known to cause a particular disease, can discourage researchers from looking for other potential genetic causes and, in turn, potential treatments for patients.
The 6-inch skeleton, nicknamed Ata, was discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Image via Emery Smith/Stanford.
A human? A primate? An alien?
The skeleton, nicknamed Ata, was discovered more than a decade ago in an abandoned town in the Atacama Desert of Chile. After trading hands and eventually finding a permanent home in Spain, the mummified specimen started to garner public attention. Standing just six inches (15 cm) tall — about the length of a dollar bill — with an angular, elongated skull and sunken, slanted eye sockets, the internet began to bubble with other-worldly hullabaloo and talk of ET. Nolan said:
I had heard about this specimen through a friend of mine, and I managed to get a picture of it. You can’t look at this specimen and not think it’s interesting; it’s quite dramatic. So I told my friend, “Look, whatever it is, if it’s got DNA, I can do the analysis.”
With the help of Ralph Lachman, clinical professor of radiology at Stanford and an expert in a type of pediatric bone disease, Nolan set the record straight. Their analysis pointed to a decisive conclusion: This was the skeleton of a human female, likely a fetus, that had suffered severe genetic mutations. In addition, Nolan saw that Ata, though most likely a fetus, had the bone composition of a six-year-old, an indication that she had a rare, bone-aging disorder.
To understand the genetic underpinnings of Ata’s physicality, Nolan turned to Butte for help in genomic evaluation. He accepted the challenge, running a work-up so comprehensive it nearly rose to the level of patient care. Butte noted that some people might wonder about the point of such in-depth analyses. He said:
We thought this would be an interesting exercise in applying the tools that we have today to really see what we could find. The phenotype, the symptoms and size of this girl were extremely unusual, and analyzing these kinds of really puzzling, old samples teaches us better how to analyze the DNA of kids today under current conditions.
New insights through an old skeleton
To understand the genetic drivers at play, Butte and Nolan extracted a small DNA sample from Ata’s ribs and sequenced the entire genome. The skeleton is approximately 40 years old, so its DNA is modern and still relatively intact. Moreover, data collected from whole-genome sequencing showed that Ata’s molecular composition aligned with that of a human genome. Nolan noted that 8 percent of the DNA was unmatchable with human DNA, but that was due to a degraded sample, not extraterrestrial biology. (Later, a more sophisticated analysis was able to match up to 98 percent of the DNA, according to Nolan.)
The genomic results confirmed Ata’s Chilean descent and turned up a slew of mutations in seven genes that separately or in combinations contribute to various bone deformities, facial malformations or skeletal dysplasia, more commonly known as dwarfism. Some of these mutations, though found in genes already known to cause disease, had never before been associated with bone growth or developmental disorders.
Knowing these new mutational variants could be useful, Nolan said, because they add to the repository of known mutations to look for in humans with these kinds of bone or physical disorders.
For me, what really came of this study was the idea that we shouldn’t stop investigating when we find one gene that might explain a symptom. It could be multiple things going wrong, and it’s worth getting a full explanation, especially as we head closer and closer to gene therapy. We could presumably one day fix some of these disorders, and we’re going to want to make sure that if there’s one mutation, we know that — but if there’s more than one, we know that too.
Bottom line: According to a new analysis, a bizarre, six-inch (15 cm) skeleton, once rumored to have extraterrestrial origins, is a human female.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2GluXbK
Kepler solves star explosion mystery
This NASA animation depicts a rare type of supernova known as a fast-evolving luminous transient, or FELT. NASA’s Kepler space telescope – originally designed as a planet-hunter – has found such an object. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Supernovae, or exploding stars, mark the end of life for the most massive stars, and astronomers estimate that – over the vast space of our universe – a star explodes as a supernova once every second. But, even with telescopes, astronomers don’t see these explosions very often. After exploding into a brilliance so intense that, briefly, a supernova can outshine an entire galaxy, it fades again in a relatively brief time, a blink on a cosmic timescale, typically weeks. In the past decade, astronomers have puzzled over an explosive event that fades even faster than that. These events are called Fast-Evolving Luminous Transients (FELTs). Only a few FELTs have been seen in telescopic sky surveys because they are so brief, only a few days. But now the world’s most powerful planet-hunter – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – has caught a FELT in the act.
Launched in 2009 into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit, Kepler single-handedly discovered thousands of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates (click here for an exact number). Nowadays, when you hear of a distant planet – a world in another solar system – being studied by this or that research team, there’s a good chance Kepler made the original discovery. Kepler had a 3.5 year mission initially, and that mission was extended to 2016. But the spacecraft’s reaction wheels began to fail in 2012, and NASA had to modify the plan to a secondary mission it calls K2. Now the great planet-hunter continues to find exoplanets, though not nearly at as fast a rate as before. And the spacecraft has turned its unique capabilities to other things, for example, capturing the properties of the blast of a FELT.
Using the data collected by Kepler, astronomers have concluded that a FELT is:
… a new kind of supernova that gets a brief turbo boost in brightness from its surroundings.
Astronomers said in a statement:
Kepler’s ability to precisely sample sudden changes in starlight has allowed astronomers to quickly arrive at this model for explaining FELTs, and rule out alternative explanations.
Researchers conclude that the source of the flash is from a star after it collapses to explode as a supernova. The big difference is that the star is cocooned inside one or more shells of gas and dust. When the tsunami of explosive energy from the blast slams into the shell, most of the kinetic energy is immediately converted to light. The burst of radiation lasts for only a few days — one-tenth the duration of a typical supernova explosion.
Over the past decade several FELTs have been discovered with timescales and luminosities not easily explained by traditional supernova models. And, only a few FELTs have been seen in sky surveys because they are so brief. Unlike Kepler, which collects data on a patch of sky every 30 minutes, most other telescopes look every few days. Therefore they often slip through undetected or with only one or two measurements, making understanding the physics of these explosions tricky.
In the absence of more data, there have been a variety of theories to explain FELTs: the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, a supernova boosted by a magnetar (neutron star with a powerful magnetic field), or a failed Type Ia supernova.
Then along came Kepler with its precise, continuous measurements that allowed astronomers to record more details of the FELT event.
The science team’s study appears in the March 26, 2018, online issue of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy.
View larger. | The evolution of a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), a rare, intense supernova where a star dies 10 times faster than an ordinary supernova. Image via NASA.
Astronomer Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, said:
We collected an awesome light curve. We were able to constrain the mechanism and the properties of the blast. We could exclude alternate theories and arrive at the dense-shell model explanation. This is a new way for massive stars to die and distribute material back into space.
With Kepler, we are now really able to connect the models with the data. Kepler just makes all the difference here. When I first saw the Kepler data, and realized how short this transient is, my jaw dropped. I said, “Oh wow!”
David Khatami of the University of California at Berkeley said:
The fact that Kepler completely captured the rapid evolution really constrains the exotic ways in which stars die. The wealth of data allowed us to disentangle the physical properties of the phantom blast, such as how much material the star expelled at the end of its life and the hypersonic speed of the explosion. This is the first time that we can test FELT models to a high degree of accuracy and really connect theory to observations.
The Kepler observations indicate that the star ejected the shell less than an earthly year before it went supernova. If so, these astronomers said, the FELTs apparently come from stars that undergo “near-death experiences,” belching out shells of matter in mini-eruptions just before dying, before exploding entirely.
View larger. | This NASA infographic shows 4 different ways stars can explode, including the rare FELT supernova type. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: In the past decade, astronomers have puzzled over an explosive event that fades in only days. These events are called Fast-Evolving Luminous Transients (FELTs). Now the world’s most powerful planet-hunter – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – has caught a FELT in the act.
Podcast: Charlie Sobeck Talks About Kepler’s Upcoming End of Flight
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2pLoMrn
This NASA animation depicts a rare type of supernova known as a fast-evolving luminous transient, or FELT. NASA’s Kepler space telescope – originally designed as a planet-hunter – has found such an object. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Supernovae, or exploding stars, mark the end of life for the most massive stars, and astronomers estimate that – over the vast space of our universe – a star explodes as a supernova once every second. But, even with telescopes, astronomers don’t see these explosions very often. After exploding into a brilliance so intense that, briefly, a supernova can outshine an entire galaxy, it fades again in a relatively brief time, a blink on a cosmic timescale, typically weeks. In the past decade, astronomers have puzzled over an explosive event that fades even faster than that. These events are called Fast-Evolving Luminous Transients (FELTs). Only a few FELTs have been seen in telescopic sky surveys because they are so brief, only a few days. But now the world’s most powerful planet-hunter – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – has caught a FELT in the act.
Launched in 2009 into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit, Kepler single-handedly discovered thousands of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates (click here for an exact number). Nowadays, when you hear of a distant planet – a world in another solar system – being studied by this or that research team, there’s a good chance Kepler made the original discovery. Kepler had a 3.5 year mission initially, and that mission was extended to 2016. But the spacecraft’s reaction wheels began to fail in 2012, and NASA had to modify the plan to a secondary mission it calls K2. Now the great planet-hunter continues to find exoplanets, though not nearly at as fast a rate as before. And the spacecraft has turned its unique capabilities to other things, for example, capturing the properties of the blast of a FELT.
Using the data collected by Kepler, astronomers have concluded that a FELT is:
… a new kind of supernova that gets a brief turbo boost in brightness from its surroundings.
Astronomers said in a statement:
Kepler’s ability to precisely sample sudden changes in starlight has allowed astronomers to quickly arrive at this model for explaining FELTs, and rule out alternative explanations.
Researchers conclude that the source of the flash is from a star after it collapses to explode as a supernova. The big difference is that the star is cocooned inside one or more shells of gas and dust. When the tsunami of explosive energy from the blast slams into the shell, most of the kinetic energy is immediately converted to light. The burst of radiation lasts for only a few days — one-tenth the duration of a typical supernova explosion.
Over the past decade several FELTs have been discovered with timescales and luminosities not easily explained by traditional supernova models. And, only a few FELTs have been seen in sky surveys because they are so brief. Unlike Kepler, which collects data on a patch of sky every 30 minutes, most other telescopes look every few days. Therefore they often slip through undetected or with only one or two measurements, making understanding the physics of these explosions tricky.
In the absence of more data, there have been a variety of theories to explain FELTs: the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, a supernova boosted by a magnetar (neutron star with a powerful magnetic field), or a failed Type Ia supernova.
Then along came Kepler with its precise, continuous measurements that allowed astronomers to record more details of the FELT event.
The science team’s study appears in the March 26, 2018, online issue of the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy.
View larger. | The evolution of a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), a rare, intense supernova where a star dies 10 times faster than an ordinary supernova. Image via NASA.
Astronomer Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, said:
We collected an awesome light curve. We were able to constrain the mechanism and the properties of the blast. We could exclude alternate theories and arrive at the dense-shell model explanation. This is a new way for massive stars to die and distribute material back into space.
With Kepler, we are now really able to connect the models with the data. Kepler just makes all the difference here. When I first saw the Kepler data, and realized how short this transient is, my jaw dropped. I said, “Oh wow!”
David Khatami of the University of California at Berkeley said:
The fact that Kepler completely captured the rapid evolution really constrains the exotic ways in which stars die. The wealth of data allowed us to disentangle the physical properties of the phantom blast, such as how much material the star expelled at the end of its life and the hypersonic speed of the explosion. This is the first time that we can test FELT models to a high degree of accuracy and really connect theory to observations.
The Kepler observations indicate that the star ejected the shell less than an earthly year before it went supernova. If so, these astronomers said, the FELTs apparently come from stars that undergo “near-death experiences,” belching out shells of matter in mini-eruptions just before dying, before exploding entirely.
View larger. | This NASA infographic shows 4 different ways stars can explode, including the rare FELT supernova type. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: In the past decade, astronomers have puzzled over an explosive event that fades in only days. These events are called Fast-Evolving Luminous Transients (FELTs). Now the world’s most powerful planet-hunter – NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – has caught a FELT in the act.
Podcast: Charlie Sobeck Talks About Kepler’s Upcoming End of Flight
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2pLoMrn
2018’s 2nd Blue Moon on March 31
Most Blue Moons are not blue in color. This photo of a moon among fast-moving clouds was created using special filters. Image via EarthSky Facebook friend Jv Noriega.
We had a Blue Moon on January 31, 2018. It was a supermoon, too, and underwent a total eclipse (photos here). But another Blue Moon is coming right up. They’re both Blue Moons by the monthly definition of the term: the second of two full moons to fall within a single calendar month. The second (and last) Blue Moon of 2018 will be on March 31. We haven’t had a year with two Blue Moons since 1999 and won’t have one again until January and March, 2037.
The expression once in a Blue Moon used to indicate something rare. But, as this year’s two Blue Moons shows, they can be pretty common.
That’s because, in recent years, people have been using the name Blue Moon for two different sorts of moons. The first can be the second of two full moons in a single calendar month, as with the March 31 Blue Moon. An older definition says a Blue Moon is the third of four full moons in a single season. Someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon.
Meanwhile, the month of February 2018 has no full moon at all.
Desert Blue Moon from our friend Priya Kumar in Oman, August 2012. Thank you, Priya!
The Maine Farmer’s Almanac defined a Blue Moon as an extra full moon that occurred in a season. One season – winter, spring, summer, fall – typically has three full moons. If a season has four full moons, then the third full moon may be called a Blue Moon.
There was a Blue Moon by this definition on November 21, 2010, another on August 20-21, 2013, and another on May 21, 2016.
The next seasonal Blue Moon (third of four full moons in one season) will take place May 18, 2019.
Very rarely, a monthly Blue Moon (second of two full moons in one calendar month) and a seasonal Blue Moon (third of four full moons in one season) can occur in the same calendar year. But for this to happen, you need 13 full moons in one calendar year and 13 full moons in between successive December solstices.
This will next happen in the year 2048, when a monthly Blue Moon falls on January 31, and a seasonal Blue Moon on August 23.
This photo was created using special blue filters, too. Image via EarthSky Facebook friend Jv Noriega.
Using the name Blue Moon to describe the second full moon of a calendar month is now the best-known and most popular definition. By this definition, there was a Blue Moon on July 31, 2015, and then – of course – the recent one on January 31, 2018.
The time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month. So the only time one month can have two full moons is when the first full moon happens in the first few days of the month. This happens every two to three years, so these sorts of Blue Moons come about that often.
The idea of a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a month stemmed from the March 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine, which contained an article called “Once in a Blue Moon” by James Hugh Pruett. Pruett was referring to the 1937 Maine Farmer’s Almanac, but he inadvertently simplified the definition. He wrote:
Seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon.
Had James Hugh Pruett looked at the actual date of the 1937 Blue Moon, he would have found that it had occurred August 21, 1937. Also, there were only 12 full moons in 1937. You need 13 full moons in one calendar year to have two full moons in one calendar month.
However, that fortuitous oversight gave birth to a new and perfectly understandable definition for Blue Moon.
EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd happened upon a copy of this old 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope in the stacks of the Peridier Library at the University of Texas Astronomy Department in the late 1970s. Afterward, she began using the term Blue Moon to describe the second full moon in a calendar month on the radio. Later, this definition of Blue Moon was also popularized by a book for children by Margot McLoon-Basta and Alice Sigel, called Kids’ World Almanac of Records and Facts, published in New York by World Almanac Publications in 1985. The second-full-moon-in-a-month definition was also used in the board game Trivial Pursuit.
Today, it has become part of folklore. As the folklorist Philip Hiscock wrote in his comprehensive article Folklore of the Blue Moon:
Old folklore it is not, but real folklore it is.
What most call a Blue Moon isn’t blue in color. It’s only Blue in name. This great moon photo is from EarthSky Facebook friend Rebecca Lacey in Cambridge, Idaho.
Can a moon be blue in color? Yes, but it’s very rare to see a blue-colored moon. You need unusual sky conditions – certain-sized particles of dust or smoke – to create them.
Blue-colored moons aren’t predictable. So don’t be misled by the photos above. The sorts of moons people commonly call Blue Moons aren’t usually blue.
For more about truly blue-colored moons, click here.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Bottom line: A blue-colored moon is rare. But folklore has defined two different kinds of Blue Moons, and moons that are Blue by name have become pretty common. The next Blue Moon is March 31, 2018.
Possible to have only two full moons in one season?
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/SSlbBZ
Most Blue Moons are not blue in color. This photo of a moon among fast-moving clouds was created using special filters. Image via EarthSky Facebook friend Jv Noriega.
We had a Blue Moon on January 31, 2018. It was a supermoon, too, and underwent a total eclipse (photos here). But another Blue Moon is coming right up. They’re both Blue Moons by the monthly definition of the term: the second of two full moons to fall within a single calendar month. The second (and last) Blue Moon of 2018 will be on March 31. We haven’t had a year with two Blue Moons since 1999 and won’t have one again until January and March, 2037.
The expression once in a Blue Moon used to indicate something rare. But, as this year’s two Blue Moons shows, they can be pretty common.
That’s because, in recent years, people have been using the name Blue Moon for two different sorts of moons. The first can be the second of two full moons in a single calendar month, as with the March 31 Blue Moon. An older definition says a Blue Moon is the third of four full moons in a single season. Someday, you might see an actual blue-colored moon.
Meanwhile, the month of February 2018 has no full moon at all.
Desert Blue Moon from our friend Priya Kumar in Oman, August 2012. Thank you, Priya!
The Maine Farmer’s Almanac defined a Blue Moon as an extra full moon that occurred in a season. One season – winter, spring, summer, fall – typically has three full moons. If a season has four full moons, then the third full moon may be called a Blue Moon.
There was a Blue Moon by this definition on November 21, 2010, another on August 20-21, 2013, and another on May 21, 2016.
The next seasonal Blue Moon (third of four full moons in one season) will take place May 18, 2019.
Very rarely, a monthly Blue Moon (second of two full moons in one calendar month) and a seasonal Blue Moon (third of four full moons in one season) can occur in the same calendar year. But for this to happen, you need 13 full moons in one calendar year and 13 full moons in between successive December solstices.
This will next happen in the year 2048, when a monthly Blue Moon falls on January 31, and a seasonal Blue Moon on August 23.
This photo was created using special blue filters, too. Image via EarthSky Facebook friend Jv Noriega.
Using the name Blue Moon to describe the second full moon of a calendar month is now the best-known and most popular definition. By this definition, there was a Blue Moon on July 31, 2015, and then – of course – the recent one on January 31, 2018.
The time between one full moon and the next is close to the length of a calendar month. So the only time one month can have two full moons is when the first full moon happens in the first few days of the month. This happens every two to three years, so these sorts of Blue Moons come about that often.
The idea of a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a month stemmed from the March 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine, which contained an article called “Once in a Blue Moon” by James Hugh Pruett. Pruett was referring to the 1937 Maine Farmer’s Almanac, but he inadvertently simplified the definition. He wrote:
Seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon.
Had James Hugh Pruett looked at the actual date of the 1937 Blue Moon, he would have found that it had occurred August 21, 1937. Also, there were only 12 full moons in 1937. You need 13 full moons in one calendar year to have two full moons in one calendar month.
However, that fortuitous oversight gave birth to a new and perfectly understandable definition for Blue Moon.
EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd happened upon a copy of this old 1946 issue of Sky and Telescope in the stacks of the Peridier Library at the University of Texas Astronomy Department in the late 1970s. Afterward, she began using the term Blue Moon to describe the second full moon in a calendar month on the radio. Later, this definition of Blue Moon was also popularized by a book for children by Margot McLoon-Basta and Alice Sigel, called Kids’ World Almanac of Records and Facts, published in New York by World Almanac Publications in 1985. The second-full-moon-in-a-month definition was also used in the board game Trivial Pursuit.
Today, it has become part of folklore. As the folklorist Philip Hiscock wrote in his comprehensive article Folklore of the Blue Moon:
Old folklore it is not, but real folklore it is.
What most call a Blue Moon isn’t blue in color. It’s only Blue in name. This great moon photo is from EarthSky Facebook friend Rebecca Lacey in Cambridge, Idaho.
Can a moon be blue in color? Yes, but it’s very rare to see a blue-colored moon. You need unusual sky conditions – certain-sized particles of dust or smoke – to create them.
Blue-colored moons aren’t predictable. So don’t be misled by the photos above. The sorts of moons people commonly call Blue Moons aren’t usually blue.
For more about truly blue-colored moons, click here.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Bottom line: A blue-colored moon is rare. But folklore has defined two different kinds of Blue Moons, and moons that are Blue by name have become pretty common. The next Blue Moon is March 31, 2018.
Possible to have only two full moons in one season?
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/SSlbBZ
Watch spacewalk live March 29
NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Randy Bresnik work outside the International Space Station on October 5, 2017, to replace a part on the station’s robotic arm. Image via NASA.
Two American astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, March 29, 2018 for a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. Live coverage on NASA TV starts at 10:30 UTC (6:30 a.m. EDT) and the spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 12:10 UTC (8:10 a.m.EDT; translate to your timezone).
The NASA astronauts, Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, will exit the station’s Quest airlock to install wireless communications equipment, swap out high-definition video cameras, and remove aging hoses from a cooling component on the station’s exterior. The excursion will be the seventh in Feustel’s career and the third for Arnold. According to a NASA statement:
They will install wireless communications equipment on the station’s Tranquility module to enhance payload data processing for the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) experiment being flown to the station on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The experiment will measure the temperature of plants on Earth to better understand how much water they need and how they respond to stress.
Bottom line: Two International Space Station (ISS) astronauts will perform a spacewalk on March 29, 2018. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 12:10 UTC (8:10 a.m.EDT) and will last about 6.5 hours. How to watch live.
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NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Randy Bresnik work outside the International Space Station on October 5, 2017, to replace a part on the station’s robotic arm. Image via NASA.
Two American astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, March 29, 2018 for a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. Live coverage on NASA TV starts at 10:30 UTC (6:30 a.m. EDT) and the spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 12:10 UTC (8:10 a.m.EDT; translate to your timezone).
The NASA astronauts, Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, will exit the station’s Quest airlock to install wireless communications equipment, swap out high-definition video cameras, and remove aging hoses from a cooling component on the station’s exterior. The excursion will be the seventh in Feustel’s career and the third for Arnold. According to a NASA statement:
They will install wireless communications equipment on the station’s Tranquility module to enhance payload data processing for the ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) experiment being flown to the station on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The experiment will measure the temperature of plants on Earth to better understand how much water they need and how they respond to stress.
Bottom line: Two International Space Station (ISS) astronauts will perform a spacewalk on March 29, 2018. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at about 12:10 UTC (8:10 a.m.EDT) and will last about 6.5 hours. How to watch live.
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The colors of stars
Image via Amanda Cross.
Photographer Amanda Cross, of Lancashire, UK, wrote:
I wanted to compare the colors of different stars next to each other. These are stacks of Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius. I took individual images 60 seconds apart with iso 16000 and speed 1/50, stacked them with starstax and presented them together to show the different colors of the stars. I took the images deliberately out of focus to show the colors. The colour variations are from the Earth’s atmosphere which splits the light from the star and the camera picks up the colors.
Bottom line: Photo compares colors of stars Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius.
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Image via Amanda Cross.
Photographer Amanda Cross, of Lancashire, UK, wrote:
I wanted to compare the colors of different stars next to each other. These are stacks of Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius. I took individual images 60 seconds apart with iso 16000 and speed 1/50, stacked them with starstax and presented them together to show the different colors of the stars. I took the images deliberately out of focus to show the colors. The colour variations are from the Earth’s atmosphere which splits the light from the star and the camera picks up the colors.
Bottom line: Photo compares colors of stars Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2IbgkIJ
Venus and Uranus meet March 28
Tonight – March 28, 2018 – the planets Venus and Uranus stage the second-closest conjunction of two planets for all of 2018. Venus is the brightest plnaet, a shining light in our evening twilight sky now, very near the sunset point. Uranus is visible to the eye only under ideal conditions; you won’t see it unless you use optical aid. Still, faint Uranus is there, next to
Only the conjunction of Mars with Neptune on December 7, 2018, will be closer. The last time Venus and Uranus were in conjunction was June 2, 2017, and the next time won’t be until May 18, 2019.
Keep in mind that At mid-northern latitudes, Venus and Uranus follow the sun below the horizon about 90 minutes after sunset. At the equator (0o latitude), these two worlds set about 80 minutes after the sun; and at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, this twosome sets an hour (or less) after sundown.
Click here for recommended sky almanacs
Because Venus outshines Uranus by some 10,000 times, you’ll easily see Venus – but not Uranus – in the western sky after sunset. Venus, the 2nd planet from the sun, ranks as the third-brightest celestial object to light up the sky, after the sun and the moon. People with extraordinary vision can barely perceive Uranus as a dim speck of light in a dark sky. But you won’t see Uranus, the 7th planet from the sun, in the glow of evening twilight – even with binoculars. On the other hand, telescopes and telescopic lenses might pick it up.
After this evening, Venus will slowly but surely climb out of the glare of evening twilight. Venus will stay out after dark for many months to come.
Meanwhile, Uranus is falling closer to the sunset glare daily. Uranus will transition over to the morning sky on April 18, 2018, and then will join up with Mercury for a conjunction in the morning sky on May 12, 2018.
At their closest, Venus and Uranus are only about 0.07o apart on the sky’s dome. That’s very close – about 1/7th of the moon’s angular diameter. But it’ll probably be difficult to see Uranus in Venus’s glare, even with an optical aid.
Bottom line: On March 28, 2018, brilliant Venus and dim Uranus have the second-closest conjunction of two planets for all of 2018
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Iata9Y
Tonight – March 28, 2018 – the planets Venus and Uranus stage the second-closest conjunction of two planets for all of 2018. Venus is the brightest plnaet, a shining light in our evening twilight sky now, very near the sunset point. Uranus is visible to the eye only under ideal conditions; you won’t see it unless you use optical aid. Still, faint Uranus is there, next to
Only the conjunction of Mars with Neptune on December 7, 2018, will be closer. The last time Venus and Uranus were in conjunction was June 2, 2017, and the next time won’t be until May 18, 2019.
Keep in mind that At mid-northern latitudes, Venus and Uranus follow the sun below the horizon about 90 minutes after sunset. At the equator (0o latitude), these two worlds set about 80 minutes after the sun; and at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, this twosome sets an hour (or less) after sundown.
Click here for recommended sky almanacs
Because Venus outshines Uranus by some 10,000 times, you’ll easily see Venus – but not Uranus – in the western sky after sunset. Venus, the 2nd planet from the sun, ranks as the third-brightest celestial object to light up the sky, after the sun and the moon. People with extraordinary vision can barely perceive Uranus as a dim speck of light in a dark sky. But you won’t see Uranus, the 7th planet from the sun, in the glow of evening twilight – even with binoculars. On the other hand, telescopes and telescopic lenses might pick it up.
After this evening, Venus will slowly but surely climb out of the glare of evening twilight. Venus will stay out after dark for many months to come.
Meanwhile, Uranus is falling closer to the sunset glare daily. Uranus will transition over to the morning sky on April 18, 2018, and then will join up with Mercury for a conjunction in the morning sky on May 12, 2018.
At their closest, Venus and Uranus are only about 0.07o apart on the sky’s dome. That’s very close – about 1/7th of the moon’s angular diameter. But it’ll probably be difficult to see Uranus in Venus’s glare, even with an optical aid.
Bottom line: On March 28, 2018, brilliant Venus and dim Uranus have the second-closest conjunction of two planets for all of 2018
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/2Iata9Y
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